PERTH, Australia – The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has unveiled final guidance that details how the Australian regulator considers cybersecurity risks over the life of a medical device, including whose responsibility it is to assess and communicate risk, as well as the expectations for manufacturers under the Essential Principles. Industry had voiced concerns in reaction to the draft version of the guidance – released last December – that related to proposed changes to the Essential Principles and the use of standards. The TGA had proposed two separate guidances – one for device and in vitro diagnostic manufacturers and those that develop software for medical devices and another guidance for users.

Two pieces of legislation of interest to the med-tech industry are making the rounds in Washington. One would require that online sales of contact lenses be accompanied only by a prescription, and the other would bolster telehealth services for methamphetamine addiction in rural areas, where the narcotic's epidemic has taken much of its toll. The bills arrive as other developments suggest an improved environment for contact lenses and telemedicine, auguring a better market for both in the months and years ahead.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to pay the state of California $69 million in what California Attorney General Xavier Becerra Monday called the largest pay-for-delay settlement received by any state. 

HONG KONG – Olive Healthcare Inc., a South Korean biotech startup, said its abdominal fat scanner Bello has received an FDA approval to sell the device in the U.S. The company said it plans to launch the scanner in the country this December, after a market test. The miniature device is portable with a weight of 3.8 oz (107 g), measuring 3.9 inches (10 centimeters) long, 3.1 inches wide and 1.9 inches high.

“It’s a rare window into seeing how the FDA makes decisions because the proceedings are open unlike many of the other decisions they make,” Audrey Zhang, a medical student at the New York University School of Medicine, said on why she decided to embark on crunching the numbers from 376 votes by FDA advisory committee meetings from 2008 to 2015.

HONG KONG – Samsung Bioepis Co. Ltd., a South Korean biosimilar developer, said the FDA approved its July 2018 application for Hadlima (adalimumab-bwwd), a biosimilar referencing Abbvie Inc. blockbuster TNF-blocker Humira (adalimumab).

In what it called one of the largest pharmaceutical settlements on behalf of end payers in an antitrust case in the last decade, law firm Hausfeld reported this week that it reached a $55 million settlement with Celgene Corp. in a long-running class action, In re Thalomid and Revlimid Antitrust Litigation. 

Eli Lilly and Co.'s FDA win with Baqsimi (glucagon) nasal powder, the first non-injected therapy to gain clearance for emergency treatment of hypoglycemia, makes the rescue of severely hypoglycemic patients quicker and easier, and coming down the pike are more treatments that could simplify therapy.